H2O ~FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND~ – 02

Having regained his vision, Takuma has agreed to let Hinata and the other girls shown him around the village, but he first goes to see Hayami at the top of the hill where she always is. He invites her to come along, but Hayami reminds him not to get involved with her. On the way back down the hill, Takuma gets ambushed by Otoha, and she notices how he’s already gotten used to being able to see. When she warns him not to waste it, Takuma explains that he’s doing what he hasn’t been able to do up until now, so Otoha cheers him on and tells him that as long as he doesn’t give up, he can do anything. To Takuma’s surprise, Otoha disappears when he meets up with Hinata, Hamaji, and Maki. The girls start their tour by showing him the rice paddies where Yui is currently working with her two lackeys. When Yui makes a big deal out of how her family owns all this land that is feeding the village, Hamaji points out an even bigger stretch of land that belongs to Hinata’s family. The girls then show Takuma the river, the village head’s estate (aka. Hinata’s home), the church, and finally a suspension bridge. However, Hamaji warns Takuma against crossing the bridge and claims that there’s an evil oni on the other side.

After the tour is over and Hamaji is prancing around in a maid uniform, Takuma notices that Hinata has been looking worried ever since they passed by the bridge and asks her about it. Hinata sticks with the story that there’s an oni living on the other side, and when Takuma points out that there aren’t such things as oni in reality, she doesn’t respond back. To find out what’s going on for himself, Takuma later returns to the bridge and crosses it. On the other side, he finds two old cable cars sitting side-by-side, and there are signs that someone lives inside them, one of which is a girl’s school uniform. Further down the path is a small waterfall, and Takuma is embarrassed to discover Hayami bathing under it. In retaliation, she strings him up in a tree and starts sharpening a knife, but she only uses it to cut him back down. When she questions why he came, Takuma jokes that it was to see an oni. He has brought her some cup ramen to pay her back for last time, so the two eat together, though Hayami wants him to hurry up and go home. She warns him again not to get involved with her because nothing good will come from it, but Takuma points out that there was the delicious ramen of hers that he tasted. He feels that it’s okay for something that simple to get them acquainted and to lead to them becoming friends.

This reminds Hayami of how Hinata had once offered her candy in the church back when they were young and when she had been crying. It causes her to tell Takuma that she doesn’t need friends, and when he questions why she’s trying to be hated, she claims that it’s natural and necessary for her to be hated. On his way back across the bridge, Takuma runs into Hinata who had come here after hearing from her grandfather that Takuma had crossed it. When she asks why he did it, Takuma reveals that he wanted to talk to Hayami, and he questions her back about why Hayami is hated. Hinata doesn’t really answer him and instead insists that he doesn’t go near Hayami. Takuma does not listen to her though, and when Hinata comes to pick him up the next morning so that they can walk to school together, she finds him already gone. He had actually returned to Hayami’s place and had earned himself a slap from her for coming in while she was still sleeping. When Hinata sees him again, he’s chasing an angry Hayami and trying to explain himself. Other students also see the two together and refer to Takuma as one of the cockroach’s friends, and this frustrates Hinata.

One of the class activities today is to make a pinwheel, and since Hayami didn’t bring any of the materials to do this, Takuma offers to share his stuff in exchange for her showing him how to make pinwheels. After Hayami dismisses the idea, Hinata tries to get Takuma to pair up with her instead, but Takuma wants all three of them to work together. This causes Yui to get angry over how Takuma is putting Hinata and the cockroach together, but Takuma asserts that no one is a cockroach. Feeling that her presence is getting in everyone’s way, Hayami stands up to leave and offers to play with Yui. Along with her two lackeys, an angry Yui follows Hayami outside, and because their teacher is unwilling to do anything, Takuma decides to go after them. Hinata tries to stop him, but Takuma heads outside anyway and stand up for Hayami as she’s getting beat up. He hugs her despite how dirty she is from having been doused with toilet water, and he says that he wants to do what he can because he hasn’t been able to do anything up until now. Because Takuma helped Hayami, Yui deems him a cockroach too and sics her lackeys on him, but to everyone’s surprise, Hinata comes running to stop them and declares that she’ll rescue Takuma from Hayami.

In the aftermath, Hayami is mad at Takuma for getting involved, but Takuma offers his hand to her and the two end up working together to make a pinwheel. The two later head up the hill, and Takuma wishes that there were a wind to blow the pinwheel, but Hayami feels that the wind has already blown. She thinks that a new wind will blow away something that has stagnated, and, at that moment, a wind actually starts blowing, spinning the pinwheel in the process.

Preview

Somewhere between the first and second episodes, this series lost a lot of its charm, at least for me. I partly attribute it to the lack of Otoha (her existence really intrigues me), partly to the childish cockroach-outcasting of Hayami (which irks me greatly), and partly to the inconsistent animation quality, especially when compared to the first episode (yes, I know this was to be expected, but I thought it was a pretty severe drop in quality). It also bothers me a little that Takuma can see now, yet no one really makes a big deal about it. On the plus side though, the story appears to be moving pretty quickly, and they’ve dropped hints about a lot of the back story, particularly about Hinata and Hayami’s past together and a fire. There also appears to be the interesting aspect of the big divide between the haves and the have-nots, especially when you compare how wealthy Hinata’s family is to how Hayami doesn’t have a good home (not quite homeless, but cable cars aren’t high on my list of ideal abodes).

Normally, a promising story like this would be enough to keep me watching, however with Clannad and Shana II already on my plate, I’m not sure I can handle three Thursday shows. For now, I’ll say that I’ll watch H2O for at least another episode, but there are no guarantees that I’ll continue to blog it.

Game8910: No, odds are I won’t continue this, but I am blogging this episode just because someone specifically asked me to. Maybe I’ll change my mind if the third episode really impresses me, but I still doubt it.

I wonder what did Hayami do or her parents do for everyone to hate her so much. Even the scum teacher didn’t care that those three were going to beat her. For christ sake Hayami, why does she just take it, she should be able to kick that girl ass and her goons. It is like she believe that she is being justly punished.

I am not saying he should or souled not blog this but blogging 3 shows that air in the same day and do the same type attention (screenshoots and episode summary) is going to be difficult, also add the fact those are done when the episode are aired.

Seriously o.o….about that pole thing…..evidently 53% of the people who voted are blind :x >> sucks to be them o.o personally I thought it was common sense to turn on the light when your on the comp period >_> have fun wearing coke bottle glasses as paying thoughsands of dollars for laser eyes surgery and going completely blind by the time you reach 52 :D

Tom: Nothing is really normal in animes. While Takuma case is pretty extreme, even the most slice of life animes are far from what people actually are in the real world. I don’t really expect animes to show me believable characters.

Haha, if that’s what you think then you should not watch many things. Who knows but perhaps this will be explained later? Perhaps a time lapse, behind the scenes thing, etc. Not all things are done randomly after all and there’s always some reason.

-Yui & Hamaji become beyond obnoxious. The “Ha-ma-ji” was funny the first time, but after saying the phrase *exactly* the same each time, it’s just annoying.

-Hinata just makes the tiny huffy noises and then snaps her mouth shut. Why should I even care why she’s so protective of Takuma? It’s too easy to hate her because she’s trying to keep him from doing the right thing.

Ultimately, I went from being interested in each of the characters to completely not caring about any of them.

I see you guys seem to be happy with the second episode.. but i WASN’T BECAUSE there was a BIG mistake like thing it that killed the whole joy for me..

to put it clear..
WHY THE HELL does no one care that a obvious BLIND guy can see the next day like everyone else? NO other character bothered about that.. my gosh that has really driven me mad.. sorry but I think its a serious storyline crash!!

@Kaho
umm i dun think it was the “next” day that he can see again..because he does talk about himself going to see a doctor and how the doctor said that how he progresses with his eye sight solely depends on him..and also the girls who wanted to show him around town obvs wanted to show him because he regained his eye sight…so i think it has porlly been a few days atleast since he got his eye sight back that is why no one is that surprised this eps..

I really hate Takuma and his attitude. Seriously, it’s like he’s trying to impose his own ideals on other people. Sure, ganging up on a single person is a bad thing, but at the same time, I really hate his guts.. like.. really really hate him.

With all the foreshadowing so far, I think this show is worth watching a bit further. Koshimizu Ami makes it all the more interesting too. 「だぞ！？」 If you’re tight for time on Thursdays, maybe just keep watching H2O, but don’t bother blogging it (as I’m sure that takes up the most time).

Personally, my Thursdays are packed with 7 shows (Naruto Shippuuden, Rosario + Vampire, Shinreigari / GHOST HOUND, H2O, You’re Under Arrest, Shakugan no Shana II, and CLANNAD) and if I had to blog them all, it’d be a huge time sink. 「/wrists」 Just watching on the other hand doesn’t seem to take up that much time. :)

Speaking of which, I’m thinking of putting YUA on hold for now though. Coming home from work everyday and having a jam packed anime lineup doesn’t give much time for anything else, especially if there’s a hockey game on or something. 3 shows aren’t bad. 7 shows are a bit much. :\

This is really a good show. I like the way it takes a extremely overused Japanese anime setting of a boy in a high school with beautiful girls and mix up the formula with something new. I just finished watching episode 13 of Clannad and the 2nd episode of H2O and Clannad doesn’t compare with H2O. It took me about a couple of episodes to really get into Clannad’s story and I will still watch it but I am hooked on H2O on the second episode. Even though they are both from a visual novel and clearly Clannad have a bigger anime budget but the story of Clannad is very typical. I know a lot of people did not like School Days because of Show Spoiler ▼

the violent ending

and the characters traits of the protagonist but you have to admit it did shake people up and was interesting because it did show characters and scenarios that you rarely see in anime and I personally like to surprised about what will happen next better than already guessing and be right because a show keep the same anime formula and does not try something new. Lastly I think a lot of people will understand if the rest of the episodes are not blogged because this show does not appeal to the mainstream of anime fans which does not like shows like Death
Note and School Days because of the really extreme and over exaggerated but human nature
traits of shows like H2O and would rather watch cookie cutter anime better than trying something different then judge based on your preferences for the story
and the way they present them.

For some reason the first pictures color of the grass, didn’t match well with the actual horizon. It needs more red and orange for it to look nice enough. That kinda avoided the look of it for a second. Still good show and I like it story based.

I’m watching as I write this comment and it just proves that I’m losing interest fast…For one thing its too awkward even for a harem romance.Tons of girls but no guys in sight(10:1 ratio..).There is an obvious limit to everything I can tolerate. When there are guys, they apparently have previous convictions of DV(Domestic Violence).The fact that the blind guy suddenly sees again is also unrealistic.(If it was in the bible then I’ll believe it).I think the plot is okay but its just these little details that add up to a dissapointing series so far.So this is going straight to the “I’ll watch if I’m dead bored bin”.

Eh @Roger I don’t see too much new things here, just a blind guy and someone who loves to get beat up. Overall I liked Clannad alot better even compareing 1st and 2nd eps, but that’s probley due to by excessive bias (I watached Clannads first few eps like 2-3 times each lol….). Something about this show just doesn’t make me all that hooked as I should be, it seems pretty intresting and raises alot of questions, like why Hayami just let herself get beat up. Also Hirose suddenly gaining a harem is kinda meh too. One thing I liked about Clannad was that it wasn’t just *poof* and Tomoya gets a magic harem, also having a decent token guy best friend thattryssohardbutcannevergetanyhimself character is a plus too. 10:1 ratios of girls to guys bothers me a bit, but it really depends on the excecution/rational. For H20 it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason for him to have all girls over him and have all the guys avoid him x.x; (well now since he’s affiliated with the “roach” people will probaly avoid him).

I kinda hope you keep blogging this. Not really because I have a big interest in the show… I have the feeling that after I watch the 3rd episode I’ll be too annoyed with this series to continue watching it (at least if it gives me the same impression that this episode did). I’d really like to know why everyone thinks it’s alright to treat Hayami like crap, but I get the feeling that they’re just going to drop hints for a while before actually telling you in the second to last episode or something like that. And you would think Takuma would try harder to find out why things are the way they are… Anyways, it’s probably something stupid or something that has been blown way out of proportion. Also, now that Takuma can see (wonder how long that’ll last though), it kinda looses it’s “Well, that’s at least something a little different feeling.”

Sorry for being so negative… I just expected a little bit more soul rocking from this show (the did promise me some) and it has definitely failed to deliver that to me thus far.

I’m not sure why I’m a freak of nature about this, but my interest for this show went UP with this episode. I’m really intrigued on why they all treat this girl like crap and whether I want to kick everyone not named Hayami and Takuma in the crotch and eat their children or not.

No, you shouldn’t. In fact, you should only mention this series to warn others from wasting precious time watching it. This show is pure garbage, and the writers should all be tossed in a deep, smooth-sided pit full of hungry rats. And then a very very large and heavy rock should be rolled over said pit, the location of which shall remain a secret until the rats have done their work.

Yes, it really is that bad. I’ve endured 4 episodes. I went from, “Oh, this is interesting,” to “Oh.My.God. WTF are they thinking when they write this?”

After episode 4, any hope I had that this series would not suck has been dashed on an reef of suck in a sea of suck. The lead? Total wuss. It’s got nothing to do with him not being able to help anyone, it has to do with him being a total and utter tool, who would rather hang out with the class bully and creepy denial girl than try to help Hayami. He’s hanging out with the same girl who called him a cockroach and had her cronies pour human excrement on another girl. And after that cute little speech of his, now he’s just hangin’ with Ms. Evil Bully? WTF?

Seriously, the pit is too good for them. Maybe we could toss a bunch of rusty razor wire in there, too.